An Unbalanced Life: How it Affects Being A Great Rainmaker (part 1)
Posted on June 4th, 2010 in Coaching, Goals, Jaimie Field, Rainmaking | 7 Comments »
I would like to apologize to my readers
First: I had fully intended to blog more often and let you get to know me not only as a Rainmaking Trainer and Coach but as a person. As a promise to myself and to you, I will begin doing just that starting with this post.
Second: The title of this blog is “The Enlightened Rainmaker. I had stated in the first post that in order to become the best rainmaker, to have true success and happiness, you need to have goals in all areas of your life to create balance:
• Physical & Health,
• Career & Financial,
• Home & Family,
• Social & Cultural,
• Spiritual & Intellectual
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to tell you that my life has been tremendously unbalanced.
For the past six months, since the start of 2010, I have been concentrating solely on the Career and Financial aspects of my life to the abandonment of almost everything else. What is it that they always say? “All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy”. Well, life hasn’t been dull but it hasn’t been yielding the results in areas of my life that should also be important.
For this particular blog, let’s chat about the Physical and Health area.
A few years ago I gained a lot of weight for me. Last year, I lost half of those excess pounds. While I have been able to keep that weight off, I have not been proactive about taking off the other half off. I have not worked out and I have not been eating healthfully. While far from being fat, I do not feel good about the way I look or feel.
Rainmaking?
Why is this part of this blog?
It’s here for a number of reasons:
• Rainmakers need to have the right image – let’s face it, as a society we are judged on our looks when we first meet others. It is important to look and dress your best at all times (dressing for success will be the subject of a future blog).
• Rainmakers need to have energy – there is enough medical and anecdotal information which shows that eating healthfully – fresh fruits and veggies, lean meats, fiber rich products – and exercising consistently will boost our energy levels. We all know how sluggish and cruddy we feel after we eat a meal of fried, fattening, sugar laden foods. Rainmakers need to have the energy necessary to not only get through a full day of work and commit to Rainmaking activities on their schedules, but also to be successful in all of the other areas of their lives.
• Rainmakers need to have a positive self image – Having high self –esteem is one of the biggest predictors of Rainmaking and business success.
However, the number one reason why we are having this discussion is, as was stated above, having balance in all areas of life is a measure of true success.
As part of my coaching services to my clients, after helping them to determine their individual goals for every area of their lives, I then hold them accountable for achieving these goals. I am giving my readers permission to hold me accountable for losing weight, getting back into shape, feeling healthy and energized by the end of this year. I will keep you updated as well.
How are you feeling physically? Are you going to make any changes? Do you want the readers and me to hold you accountable? Write down your goals below and let’s get it going!
7 Responses
Jaime,
I find this post very interesting because I myself am always struggling with finding true balance in all areas of my life. As I am the founder of the Law Offices of Helen M. Dukhan, Esq., LL.M. and thereby run my own solo law practice specializing in Family and Divorce Law, I some times find it impossible to connect with freinds because I’m tired or want to spend more time with my husband. I’ve always gained weight because I find it hard to get to the gym and am always struggling with this. However, I don’t quite agree that having balance in all areas of life is a measure of true success.
I find that happiness is the true measure of success, and at least on my part eventually I stopped always trying to balance every thing and just do what I can the best that I can and find that I am much happier. I do agree that image is something, but I don’t think it’s every thing. I find that competence and personallity make up for not looking perfect or even feeling perfect.
So, even though I am with you in always trying to achieve true balance in each aspect of my life; even if I don’t, as long as I find happiness some where in the middle I believe that’s the measure of true success.
Very truly yours,
Helen M. Dukhan, Esq., LL.M. @ http://www.DukhanLaw.com
Helen:
Thank you for your extremely astute comment. I like your distinction between happiness and balance; I don’t find it a contradiction to what I am trying to teach to my clients and readers. In fact, you actually support it in your own way by what you way in your last paragraph.
My concern particularly revolves around getting stuck in one area of your life and trying to make it perfect (which is what I have been doing in the Career/Financial Areas) to the exclusion of everything else. As you said, you can’t be perfect and this is something that I still struggle with every day.
I am finding happiness in my business and now working on trying to integrate the other areas of my life into that.
Again, thank you!
Jaimie
Hi Jaimie,
Great post! I like reading more about your personal side, and note this is very important in social media. It’s about who we are as people in addition to professionals that makes us memorable in the minds of those we care about. Nice job!
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
Nancy:
Thanks, my friend, I always appreciate your feedback and knowledge.
Physician Assistant: I’m working on it
Hi Jaimie,
Great message! I found your post on linkedin’s Lawyer Marketing group. I think that as a group, we lawyers tend to neglect our health in favor of becoming “billing warriors.”
Like Helen, above, I am a solo practitioner in the divorce and paternity area. And like her, I had always found it difficult to schedule an activity that I would do consistently. That changed when I found an activity that I liked and which I treat like an appointment with a client. (That activity is swimming, easy to do year-round almost anywhere, but especially in Florida).
Yes, it’s improved how I look, but the greatest daily benefit is the sense of well-being and renewal that I get from it. Personally, I have found that it translates into other areas of my life (I’m sure I’m not unique in discovering this about any activity); and makes it easier to concentrate as well as to keep perspective during particularly stressful work days.
I love practicing solo, and have encountered the same issues that Helen does-it’s why I write a blog about using online tools and marketing (technolese.com) to enhance our lives. I guess it is my attempt to avoid having an unbalanced life.
I’m looking forward to your part 2 via rss!
Vivian
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!